


Ice Cream Memories

by pipisafoat



Category: NCIS
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-28
Updated: 2011-05-28
Packaged: 2017-10-19 20:45:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/205030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pipisafoat/pseuds/pipisafoat





	Ice Cream Memories

Every time Jethro Gibbs eats an ice cream bar, he thinks of all the women he's lost.

First was his mother, who allowed him one every week, unless he'd done something particularly bad. It was from her that he picked up the habit of eating the chocolate coating before licking at the ice cream underneath. He supposes it's entirely her fault that he started associating ice cream with dead women – she always told him stories about her sister, the aunt who died as a child, whenever he got his weekly treat.

His first real date with Shannon involved a picnic basket that wasn't insulated, a hike that took longer than expected, and sandwiches covered in melted ice cream. It was also Shannon who told him that 'eating an ice cream like an adult is almost as much fun as watching TV on mute with your eyes closed.' She had a rule for it, too, number four. He always thought that the lower number made it more important, so he adopted it as his rule number 4S – S for Shannon, of course, but also for secret.

He's never understood why a bowl of ice cream doesn't remind him more of Kelly than a bar does. She always ate desserts slowly, so a bar would melt, and her Daddy would have to get her a bowl for the second half of it anyway. More often than not, she would drink the last of her ice cream and go kiss both of her parents, leaving them with matching messes on their cheeks.

He doesn't associate the food with any of his ex-wives, and that could be for any number of reasons, though the best one is probably that they're all still alive; he hasn't lost them in any sense of the word, though not for lack of trying. However, when he realized the sense of loss could apply to his female teammates, it took him completely by surprise. Kate once told him, not long after he'd hired her, that the way he ate his ice cream bars completely defied everything else in his profile. Thanks to that one off-handed comment, he had spent the better part of the next month wondering about every little move he made – Does this fit my established profile or my ice cream profile?

It was an absolute no-brainer that Jenny would make the list. She had been his teammate, hell, his entire team, once, and she'd also been a woman he'd loved, in their time. When they were in Paris, before their relationship had actually started, he had seen her in line at an ice cream parlor instead of on the sidewalk where he had placed her. She'd stubbornly protested, upon receiving his phone call, that it was entirely too hot to do anything other than get an ice cream, and that she, no, they would look more suspicious without something than with. He had, of course, told her to get him one, crossed the street, and joined her at a conveniently placed outside table. Incidentally, Jen had also had some interesting ideas about the appropriate ways to eat ice cream when not in public…

Jethro shakes his head, clearing it of the memories, and his companion looks over at him. "You okay?"

He smiles. "Just remembering some people I loved," he replies. His answer seems to upset the other man despite his efforts not to show it, and Jethro adds, "Makes it seems all the more important to concentrate on the person I'm eating this with now."

"Ice cream depresses you," Tony says slowly. "Boss, that's totally backwards."

"Not depressed," he argues. "A bit sad, maybe. Mostly happy for what I've got and a bit hopeful. And what did I say about calling me Boss outside of work?"

"Right, on it, B—Jethro." He smiles somewhat sheepishly. "What's my ice cream memory, then?"

Jethro shrugs. "Much as I love you, I hope I'll never know."


End file.
